Secret deal for rail boss

THE chief executive of the Strategic Rail Authority has secretly been given a new three-year contract in a move that has surprised and alarmed rail industry executives.

Mike Grant joined the SRA in 1999 as franchising director from Railtrack, where he headed the property division. After being hand-picked by SRA chairman Sir Alastair Morton, previously his boss at Eurotunnel, Grant subsequently became chief executive on £170,000 a year.

Grant's contract was due to end next May but will now run until 2004. It is understood the decision to extend his contract was taken just before the General Election when John Prescott and Lord Macdonald were running the Transport department. Both the department and the SRA, however, hushed up the news.

One senior train company executive said: 'It seems very odd. Alastair's let it be known that he is going sooner rather than later and we have a new Secretary of State [Stephen Byers] who is searching for someone new to run the SRA. And let's face it, Alastair and Mike haven't covered themselves in glory.'

A spokesman for the Transport Department said the decision to keep Grant in place for another three years was John Prescott's.